The acceptance speech by Caitlyn Jenner, the transgender woman who most of us first came to know as Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner, will be remembered for what she taught us about being different.

Last month, at age 39, Christie Rampone became the oldest player to appear in a World Cup game, when the United States defeated Nigeria, 1-0. She had her 40th birthday on June 24 and became the oldest women’s soccer player to ever appear in a World Cup final.

The Kentucky Derby is always the first Saturday of May. I know it is a horse race, but today I was only interested in the filly from New Jersey named Rosie. That would be Rosie Napravnik, the only female jockey in today’s race.

As a child and a young woman I’d competed in individual sports: tennis, ice skating, triathlons. At age 40 I joined the New Canaan Mother Puckers, a women’s ice hockey team. I knew I’d never be a star, but I loved being part of a team, knowing that the victories could be shared and the defeats wouldn’t fall squarely on my shoulders alone.

While we wait to see which women will make and break records in this year’s London Games, we take a look back at five First Ladies of the Olympics—groundbreaking women who made incredible firsts for women, for their sport, and for their countries.

At the Second International Festival of Falconry in Berkshire, England, local attendees mixed with falconers in native dress. There were Arabian horses, exotic hunting dogs such as Salukis, British gentlemen with walking sticks, and enthusiastic children. Tents were set up for visiting falconers from exotic locales.

Back in the bad old days, as Perry Barber’s post on Title IX notes, girls and women were assumed to be too frail for (or uninterested in) strenuous sports. Long-distance running? “Very questionable . . . an arduous sport would give you big legs, a mustache, hair on your chest, and your uterus would fall out,” Kathrine Switzer, who dared to enter the all-male Boston Marathon in 1969, declares scornfully.

He sits his horse naturally, easily, in what by now I know is a wooden saddle atop the colorful Kyrgyz-designed felt blanket. As he nears, I note that he carries something on his left arm; it is a huge bird that eventually he releases. I will be able to call up this image indelibly clear, like a fresh etching, evermore.

In the face of what is wrong with thoroughbred racing, the sight of a long shot– ridden by a rookie, named for a ritual between husband and wife– closing in on and beating a hands-down favorite was a beautiful thing to see.

Perry Barber has called more baseball games during her 32-year career than any other woman umpire, and more than a lot of men, too. She means to continue umping as long as her strength and her legs hold up—and goddess help any bureaucrat who tries to keep her out of the game.

Her Twitter feed said: “It’s over. the combination of factors was too much to safely continue.” We’ll update this later, with more commentary from Nyad — meanwhile, let’s salute the 61-year-old who has nonetheless demonstrated what we can do.